It’s depressingly easy for local elections to become a referendum on national politicians or, as more than one party in Scotland has suggested we should treat this one, a referendum on a referendum.

But politicians who run on national soundbites instead of local ideas, and media who let them, do us a huge disservice. The decisions made in council chambers shape every aspect of our communities, and probably have much more impact on your day-to-day life than the relative drama of the Scottish Parliament.

In particular, tomorrow’s election will determine the future of your local environment and your community’s contribution to a sustainable Scotland.

Your council has the power to manage traffic, decide what travel infrastructure to invest in and improve – or neglect – public transport. With its planning powers it decides whether towns will be walkable and cycle-friendly or car-dependent sprawl, and it can make new buildings energy efficient or stand in the way of new renewables. It can support community energy projects or even create a publicly-owned energy company. Between them, Scottish councils manage £35 billion in pension investments, and can decide whether those investments support oil drilling and arms trading, or housing and clean energy. And your council plans the economic development of your community, deciding whether it will seize the opportunity of a just transition to good, secure jobs in the new post-oil economy, or whether it will fall into decline while clinging to the old one.

And this isn’t even close to a comprehensive list of the powers newly-elected councillors will have to defend or damage our environment.

With that in mind I’ve taken a look at what the parties’ manifestos have to say about just a few of the environmental decisions they hope to be responsible for over the next five years.

Climate leadership

Of the manifestoes produced by the national campaigns, only the SNP and the Greens make a specific commitment to fight climate change. Alarmingly, the defining challenge of our time is not even mentioned in the Labour or Liberal Democrat manifestos, and only in passing in the Conservatives’.

Parties have also produced local manifestos for some (but by no means all) council areas, and the degree of climate ambition in these varies from no mention at all (e.g. Edinburgh Conservatives), to resting on the laurels of pre-existing targets (Edinburgh Labour’s target of 42% reductions by 2020), to competing dates for carbon neutrality in Glasgow (Labour say they’ll do it by 2050, SNP say 2037).

Community energy and renewables

Scotland hit its previous target of 500MW of community-owned and locally-owned renewable energy by 2020 five years early, so the Scottish Government’s Draft Climate Plan doubles that target to 1GW. From funding community groups, to providing council land or rooftops, to setting up their own energy company, we rely on councils to deliver on that target.

Outside the Green manifesto, where pledges to support council energy companies, local fuel partnerships, woodfuel initiatives and co-op renewable startups sit well in the party’s overall “Power In Your Hands” theme, community energy is dealt with vaguely or not at all by the national parties.

Local versions show rather more enthusiasm, with a range of pledges across offerings from the SNP, Labour and the Greens. In Glasgow, all three parties promise a local energy company to provide renewable electricity and heat. SNP candidates in Dundee (contingent on securing outside funding) and Argyll & Bute pledge to develop locally-owned renewables. The Greens in Edinburgh propose a target of 10MW of community renewables by the end of this council term, promise more staff for Edinburgh’s nascent local energy company, and argue for planning rules requiring all large developments to be connected to a district heat network.

Divesting from the fossil fuel industry

Scottish council pension funds invest £35 billion, and around £1.7 billion of that is currently bankrolling the fossil fuel industry. Friends of the Earth Scotland is campaigning to get this money out of coal and oil and reinvested in socially-useful activities like clean energy and affordable housing.

Despite examples like the University of Glasgow and Waltham Forest Borough Council in London, which have both committed to divesting from fossil fuels, Scottish councils have been extremely timid.

For this election, the Greens boast the only national commitment, pledging to “give council employees a say on how their pensions should be invested – including options to divest from fossil fuels, tobacco and weapons and invest in local housing and renewable energy.” Their local manifestoes in Edinburgh and Falkirk go further, aiming to get those funds out of the fossil business altogether.

The only other manifesto I could find that promised action on divestment and reinvestment was the SNP’s in Aberdeen: “undertake a review of the pension fund investment strategy to explore the opportunities for using it to support sustainable economic growth and ensure that there are no more unethical investments.”

However, more than 40 individual candidates, representing all parties but the Conservatives and standing in wards from Orkney to Dumfries and Galloway, have signed our petition calling for councils to move their money. We’ll look forward to seeing which of these end up on pensions committees after the election.

Air pollution and Low Emission Zones

Air pollution in Scotland is a public health crisis, killing over 2,000 people per year. Locations across Scotland are breaking EU law, regularly exceeding safety limits that should have been met seven years ago.

Friends of the Earth Scotland is campaigning for urgent action on air pollution, including Low Emission Zones which would ban the dirtiest vehicles from the most polluted parts of Scotland’s cities. The Scottish Government has promised that the first of these will be in place by the end of 2018, but it’s up to local councils to bid to be the first – and push the government to support more.

The SNP and Greens in Glasgow have committed to bidding to bring the first LEZ to the city, with the Greens making a traffic-free city centre their long-term aim, while Labour pledge a Clean Air Task Force to examine the proposal along with others such as a workplace parking levy. In Edinburgh, the Labour, Green and Lib Dem manifestos promise a bid, the SNP manifesto does not, although SNP representatives have said elsewhere that they back an LEZ for the capital. Labour in Aberdeen make the only commitment to a Low Emission Zone that I found in a manifesto from outside the central belt.

Walking and cycling

Scotland has a target that 10% of everyday journeys should be taken by bike by 2020. The current figure is about 1.4% - and that hasn’t improved since the target was set in 2010. Campaigners have argued that if we want cycling – and walking – to account for more than 10% of journeys then they should also get at least 10% of the transport budget.

Edinburgh has already reached this investment benchmark, and not coincidentally is the only council area in Scotland to have met the cycling target. Here, all parties but the Conservatives specifically pledge to keep active travel spending above 10%, with Labour, the Greens and the Lib Dems also proposing a bike hire scheme.

The Greens have the only national manifesto commitment to invest 10% of transport budgets into walking and cycling, but it is also promised by the SNP in Glasgow.

We Walk, We Cycle, We Vote has been asking candidates across the country about their commitment to investing in active travel. You can find out how your local candidates responded at walkcyclevote.scot/candidate-info.

Your vote

In Scottish council elections, you rank the candidates on your ballot paper – 1, 2, 3 and so on. This means it’s not really enough to know what your regular party is; you also have to think about who your second choice is, and your third and fourth.

So, if you can, take a few minutes to look over the party’s national manifestos, and have a quick search online to see if they have issued local manifestoes in your area. You can find the Scotland-wide manifestos here: